Decorative protective surfaces find many consumer applications. Household appliances, automotive interiors and paints, consumer electronic devices, such as laptops and hand held devices, and apparel, such as clothing and footwear, are all examples where consumers prefer materials that deliver considerable protection from scratches, wear and abrasion while retaining high cosmetics and aesthetics through the material's lifecycle. High quality conformable surfaces that are free of cracks and/or other defects when used in a broad temperature range are of particular interest to many consumers because of their aesthetic appeal.
Durable decorative laminates and films comprised of glass beads are broadly known. These low gloss constructions typically consist of exposed glass bead surfaces that impart high durability and decorative properties to the construction. Low friction properties of such constructions have also been disclosed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,849,265 (Ueda) discloses decorative abrasion resistant laminates that contain hard microspheres (glass or plastic) that are either exposed or surface coated with a thin polymer coating. Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,775 (LaPerre), which discloses durable, low coefficient of friction polymeric films made by having an exposed glass bead surface with glass. Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 8,420,217 (Johnson) which discloses elastic bonding films that include an elastic, thermoset core layer and a thermoplastic bonding layer on each side of the core layer, where the thermoset core layer is a polyurethane formed as the reaction product of (i) a multifunctional isocyanate with (ii) a combination of polyols comprising (a) polyester diol, (b) crosslinker, and (c) hard segment.
There is a need for flexible microspheres articles having high temperature stability that have a low coefficient of friction, resistant to organic solvents, and are also free of visible defects.